Tony Becca

The World Cup of cricket is just around the corner, but while the fever has caught on in a place like cricket-mad Barbados, it has hardly hit Jamaica.

Unlike Barbados where it is high - so high that Barbados has been promoting it by banners on the way from the airport to the city and in hotels for over a year now, that Barbados, like St. Lucia, has been promoting itself on the CricInfo website for a long time now, and that representatives of Barbados were in India recently selling the country as a tourist destination and as a place to investment, interest in the World Cup in Jamaica is low - so much so that despite all the nice talk, despite all the lovely playing facilities that will be in place, there is a concern among people close to the organisation that in terms of an event, in terms of local spectator support, it will not be close to what is expected.

Things in place

For the World Cup to be an event, certain things need to be in place - and definitely so in the capital city. With some six months to go, however, nothing but talk and more talk is happening.

The grand restoration of city Kingston, for example, seems to be attracting nothing but cross-talk. In fact, listening to all the talk, two things come across - one is that no one really knows who is supposed to be doing the restoration, and two is that no one knows where the money to do it is coming from.

For the World Cup to be an event, the people need to be involved, to be motivated in supporting it - and there should be no question about that.

Based on the number of things, goods and services, that are coming in from outside, however, based on all the talk about ambush marketing and what they can sell and what they cannot sell, where they can go and where they cannot go, the people, rightly or wrongly, believe, despite all the promises, that although it is partly being staged in Jamaica, the World Cup is not for them, that they have nothing to gain from it, and because of that, they are not excited about it - at least not yet.

Without the input of the people, without the involvement of the people, and without a satisfied people, selling Jamaica to the thousands of visitors expected into the island will be difficult - for the simple reason that the people, the man on the street, are the salt of the country, and if they are not around to greet the visitors, to welcome them with a smile and to make them happy, they, the visitors, will not enjoy themselves and certainly will not to come back.

As far as the support of the local fans is concerned, there are two concerns: one is the quality of the matches that will be played in the first round, and two is the cost of the tickets.

The teams playing in Jamaica in the first round will be the West Indies, Pakistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe, and although the organisers can do nothing about it, the only match of real interest will be the opening match between the West Indies and Pakistan. In fact, with West Indies also playing Zimbabwe and Ireland and Pakistan also playing Ireland and Zimbabwe, the only other match of interest, as far as a contest is concerned, will be Zimbabwe versus Ireland - and that is a match which should have nothing to do with which teams move into the second round.

Ticket prices

The cost of the tickets ranges from US$25 to US$90 per match for all matches involving the West Indies - including those against Zimbabwe and Ireland, and US$15 to US$50 per match not involving the West Indies, and although it is a World Cup tournament, in a country like Jamaica, in a country where the minimum wage is $2,800 per week, and unlike Barbados where it is approximately two to one for the American dollar and the Eastern Caribbean where it is approximately 2.67 to one, in a country where, up to a few days ago, the local dollar to the US dollar is 66 to one, that represents a lot of money to the average man in the street - to the man who always, day after day, watch cricket in this country.

The cost of between $1,650 and $5,940 to see the West Indies play Pakistan in a World Cup match is not bad - not even for Jamaicans. To ask the Jamaican people to pay between $990 and $3,300 to see Zimbabwe play Ireland is, however, asking a lot. The World is just a few months away, and the two stadiums, one at Sabina Park and one in Trelawny, apparently well on the way to completion, the facilities should not be a problem.

That, however, will not guarantee success. There are other things which will be necessary if Jamaica's leg of the World Cup is to be a success, and although it cannot do anything about the matches scheduled for Sabina Park and about the pricing of the tickets, although their members can only keep their fingers crossed where those things are concerned, the local organising committee can and must do something about them.

Right now, the local organising committee needs to get the government moving on its promise to give Kingston a face-lift in time for the World Cup, it needs to get the government and the private sector moving on setting up places of entertainment around the city, and most importantly, it needs to get the people not only involved, but also excited about hosting World Cup 2007.

Flag-waving West Indies fans celebrate at Sabina Park recently. - file